


springtime calls her children

by ceteiq



Series: "and a place to rest my head" [8]
Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: First Impressions, Gen, POV Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24133204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceteiq/pseuds/ceteiq
Summary: A ficlet based on my fic "and a place to rest my head," for the prompt:A deleted scene from the main fic, between Geralt and Rian(In which Rian wakes up and they're not at the inn.Or, Rian's very first impressions of Geralt.)
Series: "and a place to rest my head" [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719994
Comments: 85
Kudos: 576





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ges_who](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ges_who/gifts).



> a while ago i asked for prompts on tumblr related to my fic "[ **and a place to rest my head**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097559/chapters/55259602)" and this is for the prompt: "A deleted scene from the main fic, between Geralt and Rian." thank you to the anon who requested it! it's also based on ges_who's comment on my last rian POV fic: "I’d be interested to see more of his POV early in the original fic, when he’s not sure about Geralt yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm about halfway through the next chapter of the main fic, but i wanted to take a little break so i decided to write this!
> 
> timeframe: basically chapter 4 from rian's POV
> 
>  **warnings:** hunger, implication of past rape of jaskier and resulting injuries, and the implication of rian having met a pedophile once (though jaskier intervened before anything terrible could happen)

When Rian wakes up, he's cold. There's air blowing on his face. He's in Papa's arms, not under the bed. He doesn't even think he's in their room.

"Where are we?" Rian asks, sort of mumbling. His eyes are still half-closed because he's sleepy.

"Good morning," says Papa. He almost sounds happy.

Rian opens his eyes bigger, and finds he was right, they're not in their room. He thinks they might even be _outside_ , but— but they can't be. Because Szymon says they can never go outside or else they'll be all alone and they'll get so cold and hungry that they'll _die_. 

"Papa?" Rian asks, feeling very scared. "What's happening?"

"Shhh," says Papa. He rubs Rian's back. "It's okay. I made a friend. He helped us leave the inn. We're outside now; do you hear the birds? Aren't they lovely?"

Rian doesn't know what Papa means about a friend. He frowns, still confused about why they're outside. "Szymon let us leave?" he asks.

"Szymon's gone. He can't hurt us anymore," Papa says. He keeps rubbing Rian's back. It feels good. Rian lifts his face from Papa's shoulder and glances around, and oh no! There's a man with them. A very big man, with scary white hair and gold eyes and a giant animal thing. And Rian tries to be brave, but his heart is beating so fast.

"Rian, this is my friend Geralt," says Papa. For some reason he doesn't seem scared. "Can you say hi?" 

Rian doesn't move or talk, but Papa takes hold of his hand and makes it wave to the big man. The big man waves back at him and smiles.

Rian hates him though. Men are Bad, especially big ones, and they hurt Papa.

He looks away and whispers quietly in Papa's ear, "Did he make your bum hurt?"

"Fuck," says Papa, touching Rian's hair. "No, honey. No, he's a nice man; he didn't hurt me. You don't have to be scared of him."

But Rian _is_ scared. And also, he met a nice man before once, at the inn. Papa had been with Szymon in the kitchen and Rian had been in the room with all the tables. Papa had told him to just sit in the corner but Rian had been so hungry that he couldn't stand it anymore. So he'd gotten up and started going from table to table, asking the people if he could please have some of their food, just a little tiny bit. All of them had said no, except one man had been nice and said yes. He'd picked Rian up onto his lap and let Rian eat off his plate while he touched Rian's thigh. But then Papa had showed up and been so so angry. He'd grabbed Rian and held him close and called the man words Rian didn't know, and then he'd brought Rian up to their room and cried and asked him where the man had touched him and what he'd said.

"He said I was a good boy," Rian had told Papa. "And he touched my leg, right here." Rian had pointed.

"Nowhere else?"

Rian had shaken his head, confused at why Papa was crying. "Papa, he was nice. He let me have lots of food!"

"No, Rian. No, you can't trust men; not ever, okay?" Papa had said. " _Especially_ not ones who seem nice." 

"How come?"

"Because they're not actually nice. They want to hurt you," is what Papa had told him.

So that's why Rian doesn't like this big man, first because he's a man and second because Papa says he's nice. But maybe— maybe, even if he is a Bad Man—

"Should I ask him if we get to eat today?" Rian whispers to Papa.

"Shhh," says Papa, very quiet. "He's already done a lot for us, okay?"

Rian nods, even though his tummy hurts really bad and the last thing he ate was a tiny apple for breakfast yesterday. He buries his face in Papa's shoulder and tries not to think about his hurting tummy.

And then the big man talks. He says Rian's name. Rian looks up.

"Do you see that town a little ways off?" asks the man. He points, and Rian looks. There are some buildings far away, like the buildings Rian sees out of the windows of the inn.

"Yes," he says.

"Listen to me, alright?" the big man says, so Rian listens. "When we get there, we're going to find ourselves an inn. Not like the one you lived at before, but a nice one, warm and safe. And at the inn, I'll order you as much food as you want, and you can eat until you're full. How does that sound?"

Rian frowns. He didn't know there was more than one inn in the world. And he still doesn't trust this man. He holds tightly onto Papa and whispers, "Is he lying?"

"No, honey," says Papa, in a soft voice. "No, I don't think he is." He touches Rian's cheek.

Rian thinks about that. Papa is always right. So maybe the man _isn't_ lying. Rian imagines if he's telling the truth, imagines eating as much food as he wants, just eating and eating and eating.

He looks around at the outside. The sky is blue, like always, but the ground is green. Rian's never seen green ground before. Then he looks back over at the man, who's staring at him with a face that looks like he doesn't want to hurt him, not like Szymon's face or the faces of men who talk to Papa at the inn.

And Rian decides to believe him about the food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! :) comment to let me know your thoughts!
> 
> if there's interest, i may write another chapter of this, covering chapter 5 of the main fic from rian's POV!
> 
> also, subscribe to this [**series**](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719994) so you don't miss more ficlets when i post them! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> continuing this! thanks for everyone who expressed enthusiasm for the first part!
> 
> also thanks to [starlitfics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlitfics/pseuds/starlitfics) for beta-reading this!
> 
> timeframe: chapter 5 from rian's pov
> 
> warnings: hunger, vomit, and mentions of past physical abuse

The green ground is called grass, Papa says. The white things on the grass are flowers, and the dark things far away are called trees in a forest.

"Like in your songs," says Rian, because Papa sings lots of songs about forests and flowers.

"Yes," says Papa. He laughs. "Just like in my songs. And do you see Geralt's nice horse? Isn't it beautiful?"

He points at the big animal that's walking next to the big man, whose name is Geralt. Rian nods, even though it's pretty scary. He's heard of horses in Papa's songs but he never knew they were so big.

"Her name is Roach. She won't hurt you," says Geralt.

"Oh," says Rian. And then he takes a deep breath and asks him, "Can I touch her?"

"Yes," says Geralt, nodding.

Papa holds Rian closer to the horse and Rian touches her with one finger. She's warm and a little bit hairy, but her hairs are short. He decides Papa is right, she's beautiful. He giggles and folds his arms.

"Was that fun?" asks Papa. "You're so brave."

"I'm always brave," Rian says, because he is, even when he's really scared.

"Yes, you're right. You are," says Papa, smoothing Rian's hair down. He gets kind of quiet then and looks a little sad, and Rian worries he said something wrong. But then Papa smiles again. "Ooh, look over there, Rian!" he says. "It's a bunny. A rabbit. Do you see its tall ears? See how it hops?"

"Bunny," Rian repeats.

"Good," says Papa, smiling really big. "And oh, there's another one! Aren't they cute?"

Two bunnies.

Rian tries to remember about bunnies. He's never heard of them in Papa's songs before, but he thinks they look nice. Papa shows him other things too, as they walk along: clouds, leaves, dirt, wind, rocks. One of the rocks is sparkly. Rian likes it a lot.

***

Finally they get to the buildings, which is called a town. Rian holds tightly to Papa while they walk through the town. He's scared. There are so many people, and lots of them are men, and some of them are coming very close. Papa seems scared too. But Geralt doesn't. Rian wonders if Geralt is so big that he's never scared of _anything_.

Rian closes his eyes so he won't see all the people.

"Here," Rian hears Geralt say after a long time. He opens his eyes. They're standing by a big building with a happy-colored sign hanging from it. "The Red Hen," Geralt says, looking up at the sign. "We'll give it a try. And if anyone so much as _looks_ at you wrong, we'll leave."

"Alright," says Papa quietly, with a nod.

Rian doesn't know what Geralt meant about looking wrong, but his voice sounded scary when he said it, so Rian closes his eyes again as they walk into the building. He hears a lady's voice saying _hello_ and _how can I help you today?_ Ladies are okay, Rian thinks. They never hurt Papa, even though sometimes they shooed Rian away at Szymon's inn. He opens one eye a tiny bit.

Geralt tells the lady they want baths and clothes and food. Food! Rian opens his other eye.

"How does beef stew sound?" asks the lady.

Beef stew! Rian loves beef stew. Rian loves all foods.

"Stew sounds marvelous," Papa says.

Rian presses his hands to his empty tummy. He can hardly wait for stew.

"Two bowls," Geralt says.

"No, it's alright, we can share," says Papa. "We only need one."

Which is true. Szymon always gives them one bowl to share.

But Geralt doesn't listen. He says again, "Two bowls." Then he says, "And make them large."

***

"We're really gonna have stew?" Rian whispers to Papa as they sit down at a table. It's bigger than the tables at Szymon's inn, and cleaner too.

Papa nods. "Apparently so."

Rian wiggles in excitement and presses on his tummy again. They wait and wait for what feels like forever. Then a girl comes to their table.

"One for you, sir," she says, putting down a bowl in front of Papa, "and one for you, young master." She puts a second bowl down in front of Rian. Rian's never seen such a big bowl before in his life!

The stew smells really yummy, and there are so many pieces of meat in it. His belly hurts so much when he looks at all the meats, and he wants to eat it right away, but he's afraid of getting in trouble for starting before he's allowed to. So he looks up at Papa and waits. Papa is looking at Geralt. He's waiting too, Rian thinks.

But Geralt says, "Go on. Eat."

And Rian starts eating as soon as he hears that. He eats as fast as he can, and it tastes _so_ good, better than Szymon's stew ever tastes. 

"Slow down, honey," says Papa. "You'll make yourself sick."

Rian doesn't listen to him though, because he _can't_ slow down. He eats and eats until the bowl is empty.

And then something terrible happens. His tummy flips over and stew comes back up Rian's throat. It fills his mouth and he presses his hands to his lips, but he can't help it: he throws up. It goes all over the table and his shirt and his hands.

"Shit!" says Papa. " _Shit_ , Rian."

Shit is what Papa says about bad things, like when Rian does something that Szymon is going to hit him for. And throwing up is definitely a bad thing. Szymon hates when Rian throws up. 

So Rian starts to cry very hard. He doesn't want to be hit. Geralt is bigger than Szymon so he can probably hit way harder, too.

"I'm sorry," Papa says to Geralt, while he wipes the throw up off Rian's mouth. "I'm so sorry; he didn't mean to; he's just a little kid; please don't—"

Then Geralt talks. "It's alright," he says. "I'll get a napkin and order more stew for him."

Rian keeps crying, crawls into Papa's lap, and scrunches up his body so it won't hurt as much when he gets hit.

"You— what?" he hears Papa ask.

"I'll get a napkin and order more stew for him," says Geralt, and then he stands up and walks away.

That's good, thinks Rian. It's good he's gone. He's still crying, but he looks up and whispers to Papa, "He's not gonna hit me?"

"I don't— I don't think so," says Papa. He touches Rian's hair.

"I didn't mean to throw up," says Rian, pressing his face against Papa's shoulder. "I really didn't mean to."

"I know, baby. It's okay. You just ate too fast, it's okay. It wasn't your fault. I know you were hungry." Papa scents Rian's wrist and that makes Rian feel a little better. He stops crying.

Then Geralt comes back though, and Rian gets scared again. He makes his body as little as possible, but Geralt still doesn't hit him. He has another bowl of stew in his hands, and he puts it down on the table in front of Rian.

"There," says Papa, pulling the bowl closer to them. "Look, more stew, just for you, honey. Let me just clean you up first."

He wipes at Rian's mouth and hands and shirt with a napkin, then gives him a spoon.

Rian looks up at him, not sure if he's allowed to eat or not yet, but Papa nods, smiling. "Just go nice and slow, okay?" he says.

So Rian does. He goes slow and takes tiny bites, even though it's just as yummy as the first bowl, because he doesn't want to throw up again.

"Szymon didn't always feed you," says Geralt.

He looks at Papa, then at Rian. And Papa doesn't answer, so Rian does. "We weren't allowed to eat if Papa was bad," he says. "Only if he was good."

"Rian," says Papa, like he doesn't want Rian to keep talking. But Rian doesn't know why he wouldn't, so he goes on explaining. 

"He was bad a _lot_ ," he says. "Then Szymon had to hurt him."

"Your papa did the best he could," says Geralt.

"But sometimes he was bad for lots of days and then I was so hungry," whispers Rian. "And I'd cry so hard. Sometimes Szymon would say 'fine' and let me eat off the dirty dishes. That was nice. But then sometimes he'd just hit me."

"Rian, please," Papa says.

"What?" asks Rian.

And then Papa starts to cry. Oh no. Rian scoots closer. He hates when Papa cries.

Geralt says, "Jaskier."

Papa doesn't stop crying. "I always did what they said. I never talked back, I never told them no," he says. "I would never, ever have risked— because I knew he'd punish Rian too, and— But— But they'd still fucking complain, still tell Szymon I'd been lazy or disobedient or—" He puts his face in his hands.

Rian sucks on his thumb. This is his fault. He made Papa get sad. 

And then— then Geralt gets up, and starts coming over to their side of the table. Oh _no_ , thinks Rian. He must be angry, and that's why he's coming. Rian presses very close to Papa and tries to be brave, but he's really scared. He's scared of getting hit. Maybe Geralt will hit him so hard that he'll die.

But Geralt just sits down next to Papa and doesn't hit either of them. "Your papa's alright. Don't worry," he says, in sort of a soft, nice voice, like how Papa talks when Rian has a bad dream.

"Did I make him cry?" Rian asks, very quiet.

Geralt says, "No. You did nothing wrong."

"So why's he sad?" Rian whispers, because Papa hasn't stopped crying yet.

"He's sad... that bad things happened to you. He feels responsible," says Geralt. He puts his hand on Papa's back, but doesn't hurt him. "But he isn't responsible," he says. "It's not his fault. He was dealt a very, very shitty hand by life. But he worked so hard to protect you. He did everything he could to keep you safe. You couldn't have asked for a better father, Rian."

Rian isn't sure what all that stuff meant, but it _is_ true that Papa is the best daddy ever and keeps Rian safe from Bad Men, so he nods and says, "I know."

Then, finally, Papa stops crying, mostly. "Whew," he says, and he picks up Rian and pulls him onto his lap. "I'm sorry, honey," he says. "I'm okay. I swear I'm okay now. I didn't mean to cry in front of you."

Rian nods again. He's glad Papa isn't crying anymore. He wants Papa to be happy.

And Geralt talks to Papa some more, in the same nice voice he used before with Rian. He doesn't seem angry. He still doesn't hit Papa, and he doesn't hit Rian.

Maybe he doesn't hit people at all. Rian thought every man except Papa hit people, but maybe Geralt is different. Maybe he doesn't want to hurt them. Maybe he just wants to give them food and make Papa stop crying.

Rian would like that very much, he thinks. He curls up closer to Papa, and goes back to sucking his thumb. And Geralt is still sitting near them, but Rian doesn't feel so scared of him anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! :D more to come?
> 
> leave a comment to let me know your thoughts!! <3


End file.
